Amir Tantray
Jammu, Apr 18: The most awaited seven-phase Parliamentary election 2024 will begin today (Friday) with two Rajputs locking horns on Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency of Jammu and Kashmir making the battle a unique one across the country.
The Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in first five phases beginning tomorrow till May 20.
There is a direct fight between Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP) Dr. Jitendra Singh and Congress party’s Choudhary Lal Singh on Udhampur seat.
Both of them are fighting the battle of nerves to make it to the Lok Sabha for third term. One thing is common about these candidates that they had won their first parliamentary election by defeating a sitting union minister. In 2004, Choudhary Lal Singh had defeated BJP’s Chaman lal Gupta, who was a union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government whereas in 2014 Dr. Jitendra Singh emerged as a giant killer when he won against the then union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad.
In 2009, Choudhary Lal Singh made it to Lok Sabha by winning against BJP’s Nirmal Singh whereas in 2019, Dr. Jitendra Singh won with a huge margin of 357,252 votes. He had got 724,311 votes against Congress nominee Vikramaditya Singh’s 367,059 votes.
The Lok Sabha elections 2024 in J&K will move from south to north as Udhampur constituency goes for poll in the first phase on April 19 followed by Jammu constituency on April 26. Anantnag constituency will go for polls on May 7, Srinagar on May 13 and northern most Baramulla on May 20.
The campaigning for first phase elections on Udhampur constituency witnessed rallies of high profile campaigners including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Information Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, BJP Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussain and other central and state unit leaders.
Congress party also roped in star campaigners like Sachin Pilot, Raj Babbar and Imran Pratapgarhi and their alliance partner National Conference organized road shows of its President Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. Mostly, Congress party’s UT leadership put up their best foot forward to reach out to the people to vote for their candidate.
Former union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) is also testing waters by fielding its leader Ghulam Muhammad Saroori from this seat. DPAP is banking on Azad’s stronghold in Chenab valley and is giving sleepless nights to others especially Congress party.
The campaigning also witnessed ugly war of words between Azad and Omar Abdullah and none backed out from their positions.
According to the figures provided by the office of the Returning Officer Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency, there are 1,623,195 registered voters in Udhampur Lok Sabha seat including 845,283 male, 777,899 female and 13 transgender electors. Over 922,783 lakh voters of Kathua and Udhampur district will remain a critical factor in these polls. Beside Choudary Lal Singh no other candidate in fray from Kathua district while out of 12, 6 candidates including former minister G M Saroori are from Chenab Valley.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set up 2637 polling stations across the constituency, of which 2,457 are situated in rural areas and 180 in urban areas, ensuring accessibility and convenience for voters from all corners of the constituency.
Of notable mention is the inclusion of 23,637 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) within the electoral roll, encompassing 14,362 males and 9,275 females. The young voters, aged 18-19 years, stand at 45,825 male voters, 38,641 female voters and 2 transgender, totaling 84,468 potential first-time voters. The constituency boasts a considerable elderly population, with 12,020 male voters and 13,612 female voters aged 80 above, totaling 25,632 seasoned voters contributing to the electoral discourse.
